[thelist] partnering

Ben Henick persist1 at io.com
Wed Jun 6 13:47:16 CDT 2001


On Wed, 6 Jun 2001, A. Erickson wrote:

> I'm thinking of approaching someone I know with the idea of partnering with
> them to get some more web biz for myself. This person has access to some
> clients that I'm interested in... what would be the best way to go about
> this?
> 
> Anyone have any insight into these kinds of deals?
> 
> Also, if this person isn't interested, I'd like to ask her for an
> introduction to some of these clients and promise some sort of referral fee
> contingent on whether the project goes though -- is this a good idea?
> 
> any thoughts welcome!

Hmmm...

Considering the way things are in this market (Portland) I wish you the
best of luck.

*frown*

Or maybe I just have a poor attitude.  Wouldn't be the first time that
happened.

*frown*

It would depend, I suppose, on whether or not your prospect has more work
than she can handle.  If likewise she prefers to do one type of work and
doesn't like the other aspects of building a site, there might be an
opening.

What's the value for your prospect in partnering?

If the value is entirely in referral fees, there's a serious potential for
problems.

Here's why - if the referral fee (kickback) is too high, then the person
receiving that revenue loses much of their incentive to make sure that
your billed hours are kept under-control.  In a really bad case, you might
be pressured into making work where it's unnecessary...

Then of course you also have situations where she gives you all of the
jobs that are more trouble than they're worth (as someone on webdesign-l
said once, "wants Amazon for the cost of a ham sandwich") and she keeps
all of the prestige work, and clients who understand that professionalism
goes both ways in a vendor-client relationship, to herself.

Enough doom-and-gloom, though.

If the roles of the relationship are clearly defined, there's no
daisy-chain, and there's a degree of trust, give it a shot and see what
happens.

Network, network, network.


-- 
Ben Henick
Web Author At-Large              Managing Editor
http://www.io.com/persist1/      http://www.digital-web.com/
persist1 at io.com                  bmh at digital-web.com
--
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?"
"I think so, Brain, but... (snort) no, no, it's too stupid."
"We will disguise ourselves as a cow."
"Oh!" (giggles) "That was it exactly!"





More information about the thelist mailing list